RELIGION NEWS: Churches deploy card readers for donations

Friday

As the world has become less reliant on paper currency, churches around the globe are turning to the use of portable card readers or apps to take donations.

According to officials of the Church of England, about 16,000 religious sites have access to portable cards readers, while hundreds of churches in the U.S. have installed donation kiosks.

The card-reader donation option has been popular as churches have seen an increase in donations with the use of the technology. According to reports, the average contribution is two to six times higher than when people give cash donations.

STUDY SAYS

Refusing service increases among Americans

According to a recent Public Religion Research Institute poll, 46 percent of Americans think that small businesses should be exempt from having to serve LGBT couples — a 5 percent increase from last year.

GOOD BOOK?

"The History of Jihad: From Muhammad to ISIS" by Robert Spencer

It is taken for granted, even among many Washington policymakers, that Islam is a fundamentally peaceful religion and that Islamic jihad terrorism is something relatively new, a product of the economic and political ferment of the 20th century. But in "The History of Jihad: From Muhammad to ISIS," Islamic scholar Robert Spencer proves definitively that Islamic terror is as old as Islam itself, as old as Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, who said "I have been made victorious through terror." — Bombardier Books

THE WORD

halal: Pronounced "ha-LAL." In Arabic, something that is lawful and permitted in Islam. — ReligionStylebook.com